Owner Comments:
“You are the same, you enrich the soldiers, of everything else you despise,” Cassius Dio,
Historiae Romanae.
Purportedly, these were Emperor Septimus Severus’ final words to his sons Geta and Caracalla (188 - 217 AD). Regarding the first point, namely that the two were of the same blood and therefore should co-rule harmoniously, the advice did not stick. At least not for Caracalla, who murdered Geta less than a year afterwards. Regarding the second point, namely that it was critical to keep Rome’s soldiers well compensated, Caracalla apparently paid attention.
It was likely that Caracalla already recognized the importance of having well-paid, professional soldiers; the concept dated back to the Empire’s genesis. While Julius Caesar promulgated the trend away from providing troops the occasional, uncertain donation to more regular compensation, it was his heir Augustus who made sweeping changes by providing his soldiers’ a complete compensation package paralleling modern times: base annual salary, incentives (especially for troops stationed at Rome’s frontiers), milestone-based bonuses, and even a severance package upon discharge. In Augustus’ time, military base pay was divided over three
stipendium (paydays on the first days of January, May, and September) totaling 900 sestertii (225 denarii) per year for a typical legionnaire. Purportedly, salaries for high-ranking officers came in at one or even two orders of magnitude higher.
In 84 AD, Emperor Domitian awarded the troops a pay raise of about 33%; he raised the annual legionnaire salary to 300 denarii. While that figure might seem high, it averaged out to less than half a percent per year increase since Augustus’ reign. Emperor Septimus was much more generous. He doubled military salaries; his legionnaires earned 600 denarii per year. Following his father’s advice, Caracalla bestowed on the troops an additional 50% raise; his legionnaires earned 900 denarii per year.
While these salary increases were presumably appreciated by Rome’s troops, the impact of other compensations became increasingly significant over time. One example was the
donativum, gifts of money or other largesse distributed by the Emperor to his legions (or sometimes just to his praetorian guard).
Donativa were doled out at the Emperor’s discretion. They were usually given out at the start of an Emperors reign, as well as to acknowledge achievements in battle or other significant military milestones. Sometimes,
donativa were intended as a bribe for favors, which was the mechanism whereby Didius Julianus ascended Rome’s throne in 193 AD. Once again, the precedent was set by Augustus himself, whose will stipulated that the troops each receive 250 denarii. Tiberius was the next Emperor to donate to the troops; his gift was 1000 denarii per recipient, and his purpose was to secure the military’s loyalty during the Sejanus crisis. Following Tiberius’ reign,
donativa were expected to be given out by subsequent Emperors, at least upon their ascension. Emperor Claudius even gave out a yearly bonus of 3,750 denarii per recipient. Reportedly, the donation given away by Septimus Severus upon his ascension was a relatively modest 250 denarii per recipient. However, it should be noted that he was the last of no fewer than five Emperors crowned in 193 AD, and the total from the known
donativa given out that year was more than 10,000 denarii per recipient. Septimus Severus may have awarded additional
donativa. According to at least one ancient source (
Historia Augusta), he permitted his troops to help themselves to riches at the sacking Parthia’s capital of Ctesiphon: “Severus gave the soldiers an enormous donative, none other, in truth, than liberty to plunder the Parthian capital, a privilege for which they had been clamoring.”
When it came to
donativa, Caracalla followed in his father’s footsteps and then some. After Caracalla murdered his brother Geta to gain Rome’s throne for himself, he lavished on the troops an uncertain — but presumably large — gift to reward troops who helped him and maintain discipline among the rest. At least one ancient historian (Cassius Dio) described Caracalla’s first donation as sole Emperor: “… great sums of blood-money had been given to the soldiers for his brother's murder.” The same source reports Caracalla gifted the troops after leading them in a rather gruesome attack upon Alexandria: “He likewise gave prizes to the soldiers for their campaign, to those assigned to the pretorian twenty-five thousand sestertii, and to the rest twenty thousand.” To put this bonus in perspective, it equated to more than a half decade of base salary.
Beyond their regular salary and bonuses, there were even more forms of compensation that Rome’s troops received. For instance, Emperor Septimus Severus ensured that troops at Rome’s frontiers had adequate food and provisions paid for through the
annona militaris, a tax paid by citizens (previously, the troops had these items deducted from their pay). As another example, Rome’s soldiers received a severance package, known as a
praemia, which under Caracalla was increased to an impressive 12,000 sestertii per retiree.
While Caracalla apparently heeded his father’s advice to keep his military very well compensated, that is not to say he neglected everyone else. As Rome’s Emperor, he was expected to follow the tradition of occasionally bestowing a
congiarium, which was a donation to the civilian population. That tradition dated back to the Roman Republic, and the word is derived from the term
congius, a liquid measure equivalent to about a modern U.S. gallon. On occasions,
congiaria in the form of oil or wine were distributed among the people, and over time these handouts took the form of other perks such as grain or money.
Augustus set an imperial precedent by doling out a total of five
congiaria totaling 460 denarii per recipient. One to two such donations averaging about 70 denarii per recipient were given away by Emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, and Nerva (particularly upon their ascensions). Emperor Trajan upped the ante to six giveaways over his reign totaling 650 denarii per recipient. Emperor Hadrian took the concept another level by recasting his donation as a
liberalitas, a seemingly authoritarian term suggesting direct, non-merit-based beneficence on his part. Based on numismatic and other evidence, Hadrian awarded at least seven liberalities totaling 1000 denarii per citizen.
Even though Septimus Severus advised his sons to focus on compensating the soldiers, he actually awarded no fewer than six liberalities to Rome’s citizens: 100 denarii in 193 AD upon his ascension, 100 denarii in 196 AD upon Caracalla’s promotion to Caesar, 250 denarii in 202 AD to celebrate his tenth anniversary of rule, 200 denarii in 204 AD in conjunction with the
Ludi Saeculares, 250 denarii in 205 AD upon Caracalla and Geta serving as co-consuls, and 200 denarii in 209 AD upon Geta’s promotion to co-Augustus. Septimus Severus was able to bankroll these liberalities on top of his increased military payouts due to the vast income he generated from taxes, confiscations, fines, and the immense spoils from wars waged with foreign enemies, particularly Parthia. It is interesting to note that an ancient source (Cassius Dio) specifies that for Septimus Severus’ 3rd
liberalitas the total expense was 50 million denarii, which means that the number of recipients was 200,000. This number is far lower than Rome’s population at that time by about a factor of five; it has been pointed out that this number is probably close to 100% of the male civilian population.
Regardless of the extent of the population receiving a
liberalitas, it was important for Rome’s Emperors to get out the news of their beneficence, and in doing so bolster their support among the people. For this purpose, the most appropriate and effective medium was through coinage. This remarkably well-preserved denarius provides an example. It was struck by Caracalla, as evidenced from the obverse portrait encircled by the epithet ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, advertising the titles of not only Augustus but also Pius (pious) and Germanicus (conqueror on the Germans). The more important advertisement is in on the coin’s reverse which prominently features a female figure holding a cornucopia in one hand, and a more enigmatic object in the other. The figure is Liberalitas, the divine manifestation of generosity, whose numismatic debut occurred during Emperor Hadrian’s reign. It was logical that Her go-to symbol was the cornucopia, which represented abundance, wealth, and prosperity according to ancient Greek mythology. Modern numismatic literature typically describes the other object She is holding as an abacus or as a
tessera, a stamped piece of clay used as a token to attend an event or receive a gift. Another conjecture put forth is that the object is a flat tray with shallow holes which was used to count and dispense coins rapidly and accurately. Details on the reverse of this well-struck coin – at least in the estimation of its current recipient – more closely align with the alternative theory rather than the interpretation of the object as either an abacus or a
tessera.
Regardless of the identity of Liberalitas’ accoutrements, the interpretation of the accompanying inscription LIBERAL AVG VIIII is unambiguous: an advertisement of Augustus Caracalla’s ninth
liberalitas. While that might seem very generous of him, Caracalla kept a running tally of his liberalities back to when he co-ruled with his father; in actuality, this coin commemorated his fourth
liberalitas as sole Augustus. It should be noted that Caracalla limited his giveaways to the people at 100 denarii per recipient, whereas the maximum value given away by his father was more than double that amount. In the final analysis, Caracalla followed his father’s lead and even outdid him in terms of focusing on being more generous to his troops rather than Rome’s civilians.
The
liberalitas advertised on this coin turned out to be Caracalla’s last. In 217 AD, he was murdered by one of his soldiers who was disgruntled after being passed over for promotion, which would have resulted in an order-of-magnitude raise. The murderer’s greed illustrates the growing avarice within Rome’s military at the time. As further illustration, consider another excerpt from Dio’s writings about Caracalla: “Indeed, he often used to say: ‘Nobody in the world should have money but me; and I want it to bestow upon the soldiers'.” Under Caracalla, Rome’s soldiers had more disposable income to spend than ever before. The unintended result was that Rome’s troops were becoming more greedy and less disciplined. This created a troubling trend that did not bode well for the oncoming Crisis of the Third Century.
Increasingly, Rome's soldiers felt less thankful for — and more entitled to — the Emperor’s largesse.
Additional Reading: “Another Day, Another Denarius: Roman Stipendium and Inflation,” H. Thompkins Tripp IV, Master’s Thesis, McMaster University, September 2023.
Additional Reading: “Congiaria and Liberalitates: Cash Distributions to the People,” CWA Carlson,
Journal of the Society for Ancient Numismatics, volume 4, pages 59-63, 1972/3.
Coin Details: ROMAN EMPIRE, Caracalla, 213-217 AD, Rome mint, Struck 214 AD, AR Denarius, NGC Grade: CH MS, Strike: 5/5, Surface: 4/5, Obverse: Laureate head right, ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM, Reverse: Liberalitas standing left with abacus & cornucopia, LIBERAL AVG VIIII , References: RIC 302, RSC 139, BMC 70.
Image: Sony ɑ 7R Ⅴ camera / Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS lens.